Romney going after African-American voting bloc?

posted at 2:41 pm on May 25, 2012 by Ed Morrissey

Just a few weeks ago, the media thought that Mitt Romney would have so much difficulty uniting Republicans that he’d have little time or resources to attempt to expand the GOP reach. Today, though, two pieces from the Washington Post suggest that Team Romney feels strong enough to go after the most loyal demographic of the Democratic Party. First, their latest poll results show that Romney has solidified support among white working- and middle-class voters, especially those who feel left out of the economy:

In an election year in which the economy ranks as Americans’ top concern, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney holds significant advantages over President Obama among white voters who are struggling financially and buffeted by job loss, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

Asked which candidate would do more to advance their families’ economic interests, middle-class white voters who say they are struggling to maintain their financial positions chose Romney over Obama by a large margin — 58 percent to 32 percent.

The former Massachusetts governor has a similar advantage on this question among white voters who have lost a job in recent years, or who have seen a family member or close friend face unemployment. …

The results underscore a continuing challenge for Obama and the Democratic Party with white voters, and particularly those without college degrees — who, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, are significantly more likely to be unemployed than those with higher education.

Don’t forget that this is the same poll with the ridiculous D+10 split in its sample from earlier this week. The 26-point gap might well have been wider in a sample with a more predictive model. Obama lost this segment by 18 points in 2008, and he’s not likely to do better this time around. However, he can’t afford to do much worse if he wants to hang onto the White House, especially given where this vote tends to concentrate — in key swing states like Pennsylvania and Ohio, as well as Wisconsin, Indiana, and even Virginia, all states Obama won in 2008.

Mitt Romney’s campaign team has been quietly laying plans for an outreach effort to President Obama’s most loyal supporters — black voters — not just to chip away at the huge Democratic margins but also as a way to reassure independent swing voters that Romney can be inclusive and tolerant in his thinking and approach. …

Romney took his campaign to the Universal Bluford Charter School in West Philadelphia aiming to highlight his education agenda but also to connect with voters who were not part of his political calculus during the primary campaign. “I come to learn, obviously, from people who are having experiences that are unique and instructive,” he said.

Despite the obvious difficulties, Romney’s outreach to black voters could reap dividends even if he is unable to significantly chip into Obama’s support. “Suburban voters will be a real battleground, and upscale white voters like to think of themselves as tolerant and they won’t vote for a candidate that is seen as exclusionary, and the Romney folks must be aware of that,” said Bill Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. “He has to persuade suburban voters that he isn’t Rick Santorum. He could break the mold a little bit and do some campaigning in African American communities. It would get people talking, and it would be all gain and very little pain.”

Obviously, no one expects Romney to seriously compete with Democrats for the majority or even a significant portion of black votes in 2012. This bloc routinely casts more than 90% of its votes for the Democratic Party, regardless of whether Barack Obama is at the top of the ticket or not. That kind of loyalty doesn’t just disappear or even erode much in one cycle.

That doesn’t mean Romney should let it go unchallenged, either. Republicans need to engage more with black voters in urban areas, even when (as the Post reports) city officials show up to heckle Republicans who do so. Thanks to Obama’s dishonest flip-flop on gay marriage, Romney has an entree to engagement on family values, and school choice is another area in which Romney and other Republicans can score some points. It may not switch many votes in this cycle, but it’s important to lay the groundwork for later conversions; you can’t get votes without showing up and asking for them, as anyone who has done retail politicking will attest. Besides, it won’t take too many of those conversions to seriously damage Obama’s chances in November.

The fact that Romney feels strong enough to put resources into this strategy is telling. So, too, is the frightened reaction of Mayor Michael Nutter and DA Seth Williams in Philadelphia. Apparently, Democrats didn’t expect to play defense in this election, and they’re not prepared for it.

Blowback

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Comments

”I just think it’s sad that in a country of 300 million people these two were our only choices.” She responded by saying,” I know what you mean. You know who I liked, that Mitt Romney. If the republicans had nominated him that’s who I would have voted for. He seems like a good family man and he’s had a successful life. He seems like he would know what he is doing”

peacenprosperity on May 26, 2012 at 8:30 AM

Quite moving. Really. Romney has always been such a sharp contrast to Republican centrists and Dem liberals, hasn’t he? Say, if that lady now proudly has a Mitt Romney yard sign displayed, please post a pic of it. It’ll be the first bit of Romney paraphernalia I’ve seen anywhere to this point.

I’ll be the first to admit I am a newbie to posting here but not to reading the comments. It was good to open registration because, frankly, the whole thing was getting to be way too much an echo chamber of people who knew each other with lots of inside jokes and familiarity. From my perspective, the open registration did not destroy the discourse.

The open registration let in a nasty little gaggle of Mittbot drones. That was the intention, I guess.

All that being said, one of the vets is going have to explain how somebody like ddrintn has survived posting here for over three years.

Happy Nomad on May 25, 2012 at 10:57 PM

Because I stay within the rules, generally. I don’t go around calling people “filthy commie bastards” without evidence of their being filthy commie bastards, in other words. Now do you have any more lectures on civil non-troll-type behavior? I’d love to hear it.

I think it is smart. I have a lot more respect for him for doing this.

bitsy on May 26, 2012 at 9:11 AM

I like this move too, I just don’t think it’s gonna suddenly win him a whole bunch of votes. The Demoncrats have worked hard for multiple decades to put the black vote on the Welfare Plantation, and they’re not gonna up and leave too easily.

Romney couldn’t have been so successful in business if he weren’t smart and competent.

Kim Priestap on May 26, 2012 at 9:15 AM

But at the end of his one and only term as governor with a 30-some-odd percent approval rating and facing a shellacking from Deval Patrick. And he had signed RomneyCare into law. His “extensive experience in the private sector” isn’t that relevant. Buffett, Soros and Gates are light years ahead of Romney in that respect, and I wouldn’t want any of them as president.

Not everyone in the hood wants to stay in the hood and the fastest way out is through the school voucher program. I believe that Romney has a viable message for a lot of parents who want to better their children’s education by getting out of failing urban schools that are controlled by the NEA and other teacher’s unions.

Obama’s stand supporting failing schools by strengthening the unions will cost him among many parents and families. With unemployment about 50% black youths, something has to change and it looks like Romney is willing to go into the mouth of the lion to pull some teeth.

With ddrintn, all he does is post about his doubts and losing, because that is what he is trying to accomplish. With meat puppet concern trolls it is always the negative, they don’t make positive postings because that would help what they oppose. They also frequently quote negative information from leftist sources. Same MO, over and over in each of their posts.

ddrintn on May 26, 2012 at 8:41 AM
DannoJyd on May 26, 2012 at 1:28 PM

I guess you two dopes love fascism. Me, I despise what the regime is doing to this country and have no problem whatsoever distinguishing between barack obama and Mitt Romney. But then again, I don’t think in msnbc soundbites and dnc propaganda.

With ddrintn, all he does is post about his doubts and losing, because that is what he is trying to accomplish. With meat puppet concern trolls it is always the negative, they don’t make positive postings because that would help what they oppose. They also frequently quote negative information from leftist sources. Same MO, over and over in each of their posts.

ray on May 26, 2012 at 12:27 PM

Really? So all of those who’ve been terribly “concerned” about, oh, Palin’s “negatives” for the past three years were just doing so out of the goodness of their hearts and their own intellectual honesty and integrity then? Or did you ever say the same things about them? Or did you just get in during the last open reg period too?

I guess you two dopes love fascism.

peacenprosperity on May 26, 2012 at 1:37 PM

I’m not the one calling for banning people or using cheap Alinsky tactics.

With meat puppet concern trolls it is always the negative, they don’t make positive postings because that would help what they oppose. They also frequently quote negative information from leftist sources. Same MO, over and over in each of their posts.

ray on May 26, 2012 at 12:27 PM

By the way, I’d also point out that my opinion about Romney has changed little in the time I’ve been commenting here. I can’t say that about too many others…

Speak for yourself since YOU are the one so energized over voting for the RINO Fascist:

Mr. Romney’s attempt to contrast his plan with ObamaCare wasn’t convincing. “I don’t like the Obama plan,” he said in Thursday’s debate. “His plan cuts Medicare by $500 billion. We didn’t, of course, touch anything like that. He raises taxes by $500 billion. We didn’t do that.”

These are bogus boasts: States have no authority over cuts in the federal Medicare program, so cutting Medicare never was an option with RomneyCare. Massachusetts didn’t raise taxes to finance its plan because it relied on previously enacted health-insurance taxes and an infusion of federal Medicaid money to finance its coverage expansion. The state simply passed a big share of its costs to federal taxpayers.

Doesn’t it make you feel dirty when you support the filthy lying liberal? I would be ashamed to make such an admission.

Really? So all of those who’ve been terribly “concerned” about, oh, Palin’s “negatives” for the past three years were just doing so out of the goodness of their hearts and their own intellectual honesty and integrity then?

ddrintn on May 26, 2012 at 2:24 PM

I guess you too have noticed that the people with PDS are also Willard supporters. Correlations like that make it easy to discover closet liberals.

Doesn’t it make you feel dirty when you support the filthy lying liberal? I would be ashamed to make such an admission.
DannoJyd on May 26, 2012 at 2:37 PM

Oh? And who are you going to vote for?

You dimwit, seminar poster. You simple minded knee jerk liberals come to what you believe is a conservative site and pretend that you are disaffected conservatives revolting against some kind of betrayal of true conservative values that only you espouse. If a cross between Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher were running for president you would still vote for obama. You are a transparent simpleton. Go back to your handlers and let them know you were outed.

I didn’t read the whole thread, I’m a little alcoholicly impaired, but, I remember Rush reading this article that was published in the NY Times, authored by some Lib. Rush did not say these words, though every media stenographer differently. Typicalmedialiars.

Back to eating some amazing smoked brisket, that came off the smoker after 11 hours, low and slow.

Jayrae on May 26, 2012 at 11:46 PM
All actual conservatives will vote for him, Concern trolls pretending to be conservatives were never going to, and they will be crying their little hearts out come November.

I agree that their content is sophmoric at best, yet I find them to be useful tools in my quest to inspire others to get involved as I am today.

You simple minded knee jerk liberals come to what you believe is a conservative site and pretend that you are disaffected conservatives revolting against some kind of betrayal of true conservative values that only you espouse.

peacenprosperity on May 26, 2012 at 5:34 PM

While I was busy voting out RINO’s at the MIGOP state convention last week, what were YOU DOING? Were you waxing eloquently about your beloved RINO Conservative Sketchy, did you sign up as a volunteer with his campaign, or were you again too busy warming your chair to be bothered?

Do feel free to express your thread bare excuses even though they scream failure when placed next to the actions of a true conservative. Expousing irrelevance accomplishes nothing while maintaining loyalty to a worthy cause creates headlines like this:

What I find to be absolutely hilarious is how you keep busy with warming your chair while people like I, the AWE inspiring Danno Man, select the representatives and leaders you are stuck with for years to come.

Do keep up your good work. I’ll keep being the responsible adult affecting the decisions you are too busy to be bothered with.

No need to thank me. Someone has to do the work that lazy Americans refuse to do.